Mobile Phone Usage Trends across the Globe

Well established market research company Comscore recently announced the results of an intensive and insightful study into the mobile phone usage behaviours of individuals aged 13 years and over in Japan, the USA and Europe. The data compiled in June of this year considered not just usage as such, but carefully examined the extent to which users in each region accessed more specific and for the most part cutting edge technologies through their mobile phones.

Unsurprisingly, Japanese users were found to be more likely to utilise the type of features synonymous with modern Smartphones than their American or European counterparts. In fact, the research reveals that more than 75% of Japanese users across all age and gender demographics utilised ‘connected media’ (such as applications or downloaded content) during the course of the study; compared to 43.7% amongst American mobile phone users and 38.5% for the European contingent of mobile users.

Japanese users were also found to be the most active in terms of email usage (54% compared to 27.9% in the USA and 18.8% in Europe), by far the more avid watchers of television on their mobile phone and also the most prolific photograph takers. In contrast, Americans were found to take the honours in terms of accessing their bank accounts using their mobile phone (9.4% of users compared to 8% in Japan and 7.1% in Europe) and also the most likely to visit a social media site or use a major instant messaging service on their phone.

The only areas across the whole study in which European users demonstrated a higher level of service interaction were found to be text messaging (81% in comparison to 66.8% in the USA and 40.1% in Japan), listening to music, playing games and capturing video.

By considering the areas in which each regional group demonstrate the highest proportion of user interaction it is possible to see an interesting but not too surprising pattern emerge. The Japanese come across as the most technologically savvy when it comes to mobile phone usage: with around three quarters of users utilising the internet on their mobile phone. Similarly, four times the number of Japanese users access television on their phone than European or American. Considering the importance of technological innovation in modern Japanese culture and of course the Japanese provenance of some of the world’s leading electronics companies: these statistics clearly mirror the fact that many technologically advanced products are released in Japan prior to being rolled out worldwide. It goes without saying that technology which has been in wide circulation for a number of years is more likely to be used on a widespread basis than something only announced a couple of months ago.

For the most part, following on from release in Japan, products will be launched in the USA before they reach retailers in Europe. The large bias towards social network interaction and the use of instant messaging services on mobiles in the USA compared to Japan and Europe fully vindicates this assumption. Instant messaging and social networking on mobiles is relatively new technology but well-embedded in most current mobile phones- and due to the time delay on worldwide roll-out; likely to be a feature on a higher proportion of handsets in the USA than in Europe. The European ‘victories’ in text messaging, game playing and the use of a mobile phone for listening to music just go to further support this line of thought: these features are long established in the majority of mobile phones worldwide...even though it’s only very recently that this has come to be the case here in Europe.

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It’s All about Desire

Korean electronics giant HTC have only relatively recently broken onto the world stage, but with their innovative devices, no-nonsense press and marketing strategy and commitment to pushing Android as far as it can go: they are already a major force to be reckoned with in the mobile phone world. With previous devices such as the HTC HD2, HTC Hero and the original HTC Desire all touted as potential iPhone killers at the time of their release; there is certainly a chance that Apple has had an eye on HTC as a potential threat to their Smartphone dominance. Although these handsets have so far failed to usurp the iPhone of its throne, it seems that HTC may have finally created a handset with the ability to do just that- and done so by putting together an advanced hybrid of two of their existing models.

The first incarnation of the HTC Desire has met with accolades and criticism since its initial launch, but for the most part is widely considered to be an admirable handset which makes great use of Google’s powerful Android platform. To many the Desire was considered to be an all-round better alternative to the iPhone 3gs which does indeed mean that it is fair to say that the phone could rightfully be labelled an ‘iPhone Killer’- that was until the iPhone 4 was launched. With the updated iPhone came a whole new collection of features and aesthetic aspects which other manufacturers were measured against. For the most part, the Desire was considered to be a competitor to the iPhone 4 but rarely deemed to be superior.

Prior to the release of the Desire, HTC had previously launched the supersized handset the HTC HD- which boasted an impressively sized screen and incredible camera/video capabilities. To many this phone represented an exciting new era in portable technology, but the vast majority agreed that one thing held it back: the Windows Mobile platform. Windows mobile has a reputation for being clunky, awkward and slow. Although many of the problems with the operating system were ironed out in the relatively new Windows Mobile 7, Android earned its places as HTC’s platform of choice and with 2.2 Froyo, Android became the main front runner in terms of competition to iOS and the iPhone at large.

In the light of the various successes and shortfalls of their previous models it should come as no surprise that HTC’s most recent offering, the Desire HD (to be launched in early October) has essentially taken the big advantages of its most popular existing handsets and tweaked the resulting phone to perfection. The HTC Desire HD combines the HD qualities and impressive screen of the HTC HD and HD2 with the same operating system and platform as the desire. It also boasts an 8 megapixel camera and flash in addition to an extremely quick processor, bundles of RAM and all manner of connectivity extras. In short, this phone is going to be big: very big.